How to Keep Healthy Over the Festive Season

We Over-indulge every year from Christmas to New years…

The festive season is a time of joy and celebration, but also a time of temptation and indulgence. It can be hard to resist the abundance of delicious food and drink that surrounds us, especially when we are in a festive mood and socialising with friends and family. However, over-indulging in food and drink can have negative consequences for our health, such as weight gain, digestive problems, dehydration, and hangovers. How can we enjoy the festive season without over-indulging in food and drink? Here are some tips and strategies, backed by evidence from scientific research, that can help us moderate our consumption and maintain our health.

Eat Mindfully

One of the keys to avoiding over-indulgence is to eat mindfully. Eating mindfully means paying attention to what, how, when, and why we eat, and being aware of our hunger and fullness cues. Eating mindfully can help us enjoy our food more, eat less, and feel more satisfied. Research has shown that eating mindfully can reduce binge eating, emotional eating, and food cravings, and improve weight management and metabolic health.

To eat mindfully, we can:

• Eat before we go to a party. That way we won’t be super hungry and we’ll be less likely to over-indulge. Only eat when we’re hungry or at a designated meal. Mindless eating just because food is there means we’ll easily consume too many calories in a day.

• Choose quality over quantity. Instead of filling our plates with everything we see, we can select a few items that we really want to try, and savor them slowly and deliberately. We can also opt for healthier options, such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains, and limit our intake of high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt foods.

• Pause and check in with ourselves. We can take a break between bites and ask ourselves if we are still hungry or full. We can also use the hunger scale, which ranges from 1 (starving) to 10 (stuffed), to rate our hunger and fullness levels. Ideally, we should start eating when we are at a 3 or 4, and stop eating when we are at a 7 or 8.

Drink Moderately

Another key to avoiding over-indulgence is to drink moderately. Drinking moderately means limiting our alcohol intake and staying hydrated. Drinking moderately can help us avoid dehydration, hangovers, and alcohol-related health problems, such as liver damage, high blood pressure, and increased risk of cancer.

To drink moderately, we can:

• Follow the recommended guidelines. According to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy adults should drink no more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day. A standard drink is equivalent to 10 grams of pure alcohol, which is about 100 ml of wine, 285 ml of regular beer, or 30 ml of spirits.

• Break up the booze. We can reduce the amount we drink by having a glass of water between each alcoholic drink and opting for lower-sugar mixers such as soda water or mineral water. We can also skip other energy-dense drinks like soft drinks and fruit juice and opt for a sparkling water with fresh lemon or lime instead.

• Drink for the right reasons. We can avoid drinking alcohol to cope with stress, boredom, or negative emotions, as this can lead to excessive and unhealthy drinking patterns. Instead, we can drink alcohol for enjoyment and socialization, and find other ways to deal with our feelings, such as talking to someone, exercising, or meditating.

Make Christmas day the only day you over-indulge if you need to!

Having one day throughout the week between Christmas and new years the day you let loose a little bit will help with feeling like you are missing out and you will remind you of why we don’t over-indulge. We need that little reminder as to why we don’t over-indulge all of the time, a reminder of the bloating, gassy, potentially meat-sweats, hangover and lethargy that come with over-eating and drinking.

Simply the body saying we may have over-done it and forcing you to stop and rest, as you need to digest the food and drink that you have just consumed. By having one day where you let loose, you can then feel content, helping you need to make sure that the rest of the week is therefore “back to routine,” where you eat and drink mindfully. Of course, this contradicts the not “over-indulging” part, but sometimes we are not able to stop ourselves and resort back to our base needs and habits, we are only human after all. By making a decision that Christmas day will be the only day you indulge a little bit more, you are setting yourself up to succeed throughout the rest of the week.

The festive season is a wonderful time to celebrate and indulge, but it doesn’t have to come at the expense of our health. By eating mindfully and drinking moderately, we can enjoy the festive season without over-indulging in food and drink all week. We can also remember that the festive season is not only about food and drink, but also about spending quality time with our loved ones, expressing gratitude, and spreading joy. By focusing on these aspects, we can have a happy and healthy festive season.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Why You Should Drink Water and Stay Hydrated

Water is essential for life. It makes up about 60% of your body weight and is involved in many important functions, such as regulating body temperature, lubricating joints, delivering nutrients to cells, removing waste products, and supporting organ function. Staying hydrated is crucial for your health and well-being, as it can affect your energy levels, brain function, mood, skin health, weight management, and more. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of hydration and how drinking water affects your body on a cellular level and overall.

The Benefits of Hydration

Drinking enough water each day can provide many benefits for your health, such as:

• Improving physical performance. Water helps prevent dehydration, which can impair your strength, endurance, and coordination. Dehydration can also increase the risk of heat-related illnesses, such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Drinking water before, during, and after exercise can help you perform better and recover faster. [1]

• Enhancing cognitive function and mood. Water is vital for your brain, as it helps maintain the balance of fluids and electrolytes that affect your nerve and brain cells. Dehydration can impair your attention, memory, and mood, as well as increase the likelihood of headaches and fatigue. Drinking water can help you stay alert, focused, and happy. [2]

• Supporting kidney health. Water helps your kidneys filter out waste products and toxins from your blood and urine. Dehydration can reduce your urine output and increase the concentration of substances that can form kidney stones. Drinking water can help you flush out these substances and prevent kidney damage. [3]

• Promoting skin health. Water helps keep your skin hydrated, elastic, and smooth. Dehydration can cause your skin to become dry, dull, and wrinkled. Drinking water can help you moisturize your skin from within and prevent premature aging. [4]

• Aiding weight management. Water can help you control your appetite and calorie intake, as it can make you feel full and reduce your hunger. Water can also boost your metabolism and increase your energy expenditure, as it helps your body burn calories and fat. Drinking water can help you lose weight and maintain a healthy body weight. [5]

How Drinking Water Affects Your Body on a Cellular Level and Overall

Water is not only important for your body as a whole, but also for your cells, which are the basic units of life. Water helps your cells function properly and efficiently, as it:

• Transports nutrients and oxygen. Water is the main component of your blood, which carries essential nutrients and oxygen to your cells. Without water, your cells would not be able to receive the fuel and energy they need to perform their tasks. [7]

• Removes waste products and toxins. Water is also the main component of your lymph, which collects waste products and toxins from your cells and transports them to your kidneys and liver for elimination. Without water, your cells would not be able to get rid of the harmful substances that can damage them. [6]

• Maintains cell structure and volume. Water helps your cells maintain their shape and size, as it fills the space inside and outside of them. Water also helps your cells maintain the balance of fluids and electrolytes, which affects the movement of water and other substances across the cell membrane. Without water, your cells would shrink or swell, which can disrupt their function and integrity. [7]

• Supports cell communication and signaling. Water helps your cells communicate and coordinate with each other, as it facilitates the transmission of electrical impulses and chemical signals. Water also helps your cells respond to these signals, as it activates certain enzymes and proteins that regulate cell activity. Without water, your cells would not be able to interact and cooperate with each other. [8]

How Much Water Should You Drink?

The amount of water that you should drink depends on various factors, such as your age, weight, activity level, climate, and health status. There is no universal recommendation for water intake, as it varies from person to person. However, a general guideline is to drink enough water to keep your urine pale yellow or clear, and to avoid thirst, dry mouth, and other signs of dehydration. You may need more water if you exercise, sweat, have a fever, diarrhea, or vomiting, or if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. You may need less water if you have certain medical conditions, such as heart failure or kidney disease, or if you take certain medications, such as diuretics. You should always consult your doctor before changing your water intake.

Water is essential for your health and well-being, as it affects your body on a cellular level and overall. Drinking enough water each day can provide many benefits for your physical performance, cognitive function, mood, skin health, weight management, and more. To stay hydrated, you should drink water regularly throughout the day, and adjust your intake according to your needs and preferences. By doing so, you can enjoy the many advantages of hydration and improve your quality of life.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

How to Create Great Habits- Health-Wealth-Life

Habits, everyone has heard of them, but not everyone truly understands the power of habits and how you can use them to Take Back Control.

Over the next few minutes, we will dive into creating better habits, habits that will get you moving more, focusing a bit more on your finances and helping you to improve your life 10 fold!

Firstly, what is a habit?

“Something that you do often and regularly, sometimes without knowing that you are doing it”- English Cambridge Dictionary

The definition of a habit sums it up pretty well, in fact we all have habits that we complete every single day, brushing your teeth in the morning and at night, eating dinner at roughly the same time, every day.

Driving a car is a great example, we have built up a series of habits to be able to drive from one place to the other, accelerating, breaking, changing gears, seeing brake lights ahead and braking ourselves.

All of which have been built into us as habits, from repetition, making mistakes and learning from them. Have you ever been driving your car to work, and time just flies by, you are hopping into the car, the next thing you know, you are at work. Or when you get into a “Flow” state at work, and the next thing you know, it is lunch time, but you felt like you just sat down. Another great example of completing repetitive tasks that you have built up as a habit.

That is because when you are completing a habit, your brain goes into automation mode, whereby it can complete most tasks from a subconscious level.

The reason we pack our habits into our subconscious comes down to flight and fight, as well as creating capacity for our brain to be used for much bigger problems and decisions.

What this means is that we really only truly use roughly 5% of our brain on a day to day basis to make important decisions and to create even more important habits.

Now, knowing that you have habits and that we use them every day so that you can leave the more important stuff to the conscious mind, we want to be able to use this as a way to Take Back Control of our lives and the habits we form.

To do this, we need to understand how a habit is formed in the first place, which is generally formed through what we call a “Habit Loop.”

The Habit Loop is how you Take Back Control of Life

The habit loop is very simple, in fact, our brains like things to be very simple and very repetitive, otherwise it takes a lot more energy to make new decisions or new habit loops. In the habit loop, we always start with a trigger, I have used this explanation quite a lot with nutrition clients, whereby you might start feeling bored or have nothing to do, so you open the fridge/pantry.

The trigger is feeling bored or having nothing to do at home, the routine is opening the fridge/pantry door and we can all understand what happens next…

We either crack open a “beer” or “have a snack,” even when we don’t need it, and that is the reward.

Now we know what the habit loop is, we can actually break that down and form a new habit, something that will not entail you eating every time that you are feeling bored.

You need to start at the “trigger,” which is the feeling of being bored or having nothing to do. When you feel this, you will probably find yourself in front of the pantry/fridge, about to open the door. What you need to do is stop yourself from opening the door, by asking yourself a question, “Am I really hungry?”

You need to move yourself from the subconscious to the conscious level, where you can make decisions, rather than just following habit loops you have built up over time.

If you can break the trigger, you can break down the habit and begin anew. Now the first, second, third… Even the 100th time, you may fail at breaking down the habit, especially if it is ingrained in you from a young age.

However, the key is persistence, to be able to fail and fail again, but keep trying and moving forward!

Another great example is spending money, in fact, I have seen a similar trigger bring on online shopping, whereby you may feel bored, or have nothing to do, so you open up your mobile or laptop and before you know it, you are on Amazon, Facebook or Instagram.

You are scrolling through your feed and ads keep popping up, these ads are targeted and they know your behaviours, they know that you are in a subconscious mind right now and they easily create triggers for you to begin a habit loop.

I have done marketing courses previously and I know how marketers think, they are always looking at ways to grab your attention to break the loop of scrolling and to get you to click on the product/service.

Once they have you, the likelihood of you buying and scrolling through the online store is very high, based on yur habit that you have built up and before you know it, you have spent $100-$500.

Again, to break the habit, you need to stop it at the trigger, to be able to do this, you need to leave your subconscious mind and move back into the conscious mind, which the brain does not like to do to conserve energy on the bigger decisions.

Hopefully, by delving into how habits are formed, you will be able to use this as a way to start breaking down some of your own habits that you want to stop doing. Which could be anything from smoking, to playing games all night, to alcohol, to eating too many snacks, to spending too much money.

You will most likely fail at the start, breaking down a very old habit is even harder to do, so I suggest that you start with a recently built habit, something that you have only just started doing. You will have to think on this, ask loved ones even, because you may not even realise you are doing it…

Once you have your first habit that you want to break, you will need to work hard to break it, because you are literally fighting against yourself!

The key is to be persistent and be okay with failure, see each and every failing as a lesson to be learnt and to strive to get better!

If you are in need of a bit of help trying to break down this habit, you can reach out to me anytime, just send me through a message on any of the social platforms,

Until Next Time,

Take Back Control

Health is Holistic: Sleep/Recovery

There is no better way to start this post then with a story of how sleep and prioritising recovery led to an improvement in overall health, stress reduction and weight loss in the majority of my previous clients. [1]

Sleep takes up a third of our lives, but just like the subconscious rules our decision making and habits, sleep plays a vital role in neural development, digestion, memory, cardiovascular and metabolic function, as well as overall health. We all know that sleep is good for you, but just how good are we talking here?

Well, based on my own experiences and previous clients experiences, here are the results…

For myself and those clients who were only getting 5-6 hours sleep, the likelihood of a decrease in performance at training was significant, not only that, but a decrease in metabolism as well, whereby the body just did not efficiently take in and digest food. Which led to an increase in body fat, impaired judgement leading to poor decision making, less energy and therefore less productivity and increased stress/anxiety. These are results that I have seen over the span of ten years of training people, hundreds of people, just by simply asking how much they sleep on average and noting it down and tracking all of the above.

I myself, fell into the trap of only sleeping 5-6 hours per night when I was younger, thinking if I had more time in the day, then I would be able to get more done. When in fact, what was happening was the more time in the day led to more distractions and procrastination, impaired judgement and lack of energy.

Now, what happened when clients started sleeping the recommended 7-8 hours a night, or 7-9 hours a night for athletes? [2]

Well, of course there was an increase in energy levels almost instantly, weight loss occurred over the first few weeks and bowel movements were regular (based on my own experiences, didn’t have the guts to ask clients about their bowel movements, probably should have though on looking back).

Of course, this led to a significant impact on overall health and performance in training, whereby results were happening faster. So to re-iterate, we all know sleep is good for you…

How do we start sleeping the recommended 7-8 hours per night and getting a good sleep which is not disturbed, where you sleep all the way through?

First thing is taking a look at your environment, is it set up for a successful nights sleep?

Your sleep environment, generally speaking, your bedroom, is truly significant to getting a good nights sleep. Here is how to set up your environment for success.

1. Get rid of all artificial light! Including any electronic clocks or anything that may disturb your sleep.

   Increased artificial light in your room decreases the onset of melatonin (think this as the wind down chemical in your body), which in turn will mess up your circadian rhythm. (A fancy term for your natural sleeping pattern) [3]

   Which includes decreasing the amount of artificial light before bed as well, a lot of smart phones will automatically switch to night mode these days, whereby the blue/white light, which the brain sees as daylight, becomes a yellow/grey light. Just a simple change like this is powerful, as the brain will start to onset melatonin levels and naturally start signalling bedtime. If your smart phone does not do this automatically, you will be sure to find an app that will do it.

2. Go to bed at a set time each night!

   Studies have proved over and over again that going to bed at roughly the same time each night will improve your sleep throughout the night, but also improve your ability to fall asleep.

3. Not able to get a full nights sleep? Napping throughout the day is just as effective!

   Studies have shown, especially in athletes, that if you are not able to get the full 7-9 hours sleep for recovery and performance. According to Mathew Walker, sleep specialist and international best seller of “Why we sleep?”, napping throughout the day is just as effective, however timing is key for this one. As you should aim to nap between the hours of 11am-2pm, depending on when you wake up. You also should aim for no more than 10-20 minutes sleep or you will need to sleep for at least an hour to two hours depending on the person to stop the grogginess and drowsiness you get after a nap.

4. Eating and drinking affect sleep!

   Your nutrition and what you drink will affect how you sleep, the main reasons for a hangover is not so much the alcohol consumption, but due to alcohol being a somnogen (chemical that induces sleep) it actually makes you sleepy, but affects the second half of the night by causing major disruptions. [5]

   Therefore, what you eat and drink does affect how you sleep, ever get the meat sweats or have too much food and start to get drowsy? A similar affect occurs, and it is this disruption of sleep that actually is worse than getting only 5-6 hours of continuous sleep. Hence, eating a naturally balanced nutrition and limiting alcohol consumption will also improve your sleeping habits.

5. Exercise will help improve your sleep!

   Incorporating daily movement into your life will help to improve your sleep as well, by incorporating 3-4 sessions of training per week at a moderate to high intensity, of only 45-60 minutes per session, you will be well and truly on your way to a great nights sleep!

Finally, I want to end on this, 1 in 2 Australians and nearly 60% of Americans will not be getting enough sleep or have sleep-related issues. [6] If you are not getting an uninterrupted 7-9 hours of sleep at least five to six days a week, you should be looking to change a few small things here and there right now, to help improve your sleeping habits. Taking one to two steps out of the five steps I have given you bove will help dramatically.

My advice, is to start with one or two things, make it easy and simply convenient. You could just start with downloading an app or checking your smart device for the sleep mode, and maybe setting a time for sleep each night.

By doing this, you are not only going to be improving your health, but increasing longevity, productivity and energy levels across the board. All it takes is a simple decision and taking action on that decision!

Until next time,

Take Back Control!

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References:

[1] - https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1164/rccm.201504-0767ST#:~:text=Sleep%20is%20an%20essential%20biological,removal%20(2%E2%80%935).

[2] - https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2018/09/the-benefits-of-getting-a-full-night-sleep/

[3] -https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26375320/#:~:text=Exposure%20to%20artificial%20bright%20light,cardiovascular%20and%2For%20metabolic%20functions.

[4] - “Why we sleep?” Mathew Walker, published 2018.

[5] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4427543/

[6] - https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/risk-factors/sleep-problems-as-a-risk-factor/summary

Health is Holistic: Intro

Speaking from experience, after training people for ten years straight and for training myself for nearly 15 years, I know a little bit about health…

Not just physical health, but mental health too, I have seen a lot when it comes to people feeling the weight of the world, bearing down on their shoulders. The world can be harsh and suffering/chaos is just a part of life, and humans, we are wired to fail and to fall back into old habits.

Hence, I wanted to write a short series on health, not just how to eat or train, because to be honest, most people know how to do that.

If you went to a school from the year 2000 onwards, you have been taught the five food groups and you have been taught what is good for you.

You don’t really need to be told to eat more vegies and less packaged/processed foods. You already know this!

And training, we know the benefits of movement, we know that it is good for us, we know we were made to move, but it is painful and not something most people want to do.

Therefore, the Holistic Health series over the next few weeks is going to be a journey about breaking down barriers, learning how to shake the foundations of your beliefs and attitudes, to hopefully help you take back control on the one aspect we all have control over…

The single most important thing in the world…

Your Health!

Truly, I hope that you can strap in for this one and let me take you on a journey, a journey about previous clients, my own story and how I learnt the single most important factor that has kept me coming back to eating healthier, training and moving everyday.

Which has helped me to be more productive, change my mindset and kept me positive over the last fifteen years.

The next blog will be talking about nutrition, but I want to assure you, it is not going to be a blog where I tell you what to do, in fact, I hold this one pretty close, as I will be discussing my own personal story and why I ended up in hospital in the year 2015!

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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Ps. Take Back Control turns One on Friday of this week!!

It is hard to believe that the blog is turning one, whereby I have written one, sometimes two blogs every week for the last year.

I will be doing a special edition article on Friday of this week, looking back at the year and going back to why I decided to start Take Back Control. Make sure you look out for it!

How to Achieve all of Your Health and Fitness Goals!

Most people, when they come to the gym, will generally start because they believe that they need to train to “look good,” or to be healthy…

Of course, this is untrue, as exercise and training alone is not going to be the reason that you “lose weight” or “get ripped.” No, eating the right foods, in moderation and sleeping the right amount is almost just as important as training 3-4 times per week.

Therefore, if you want to achieve all of your health and fitness goals, yes, you should work to train and be active, as it will go a long way to improving your health, however you should outsource the training and programming to a coach or gym. Therefore, you can prioritise and focus on the one thing a coach cannot help you with...

Your daily decisions to eat the right foods and sleep the right amount each night.

Your health simply comes down to the decisions you make each day, which means they come down to the habits you have created over the last 5-10, even 15 years.

Therefore, to achieve all of your health and fitness goals, to be honest, to achieve any goal you set your mind to, it comes down to simply understanding that you have control of the decisions you make each day.

Homo Sapiens, meaning you and I, are very complex, but also very simple, we are inherently lazy and look for the most convenient ways to do things, to save time and focus on the things we like doing. In fact, the brain automates the boring jobs we do, day in-day out.

Such as driving the car through traffic to and from work, one minute you are driving out of your driveway, the next you have safely arrived at work. Your brain is very adept at fast-forwarding time when it comes to completing tasks it does day in and day out, which is great for driving through traffic, however horribly bad for when you reach for those chips or chocolates out of the pantry each day.

It is this automated mode that you need to change for you to truly achieve optimal health.

Hence, to truly Take Back Control of your decision making each day, you need to understand what habits you have created that are completely autonomous. Especially the habits where you include the two Tim-Tams with a cup of coffee or cup of tea whilst watching TV.

The best way to do this is to take a mental note and write down each day what habits you have, it is simply like taking a step outside of your own body and actually viewing yourself as if a character in a TV show or movie.

What things about yourself do you notice that you want to change? What actions do you take that you know could be affecting your health?

Write down every little thing and then choose one thing per week or fortnight to improve.

Do you drink enough water? Do you get home and feel too exhausted to cook dinner, therefore ordering take out two to three times a week? Do you eat those extra two cookies from the pantry before bed?

Do you eat enough food during the day? Do you get enough vegies or enough protein?

All of these things and more may not seem like much at the time, but compounded over years and decades, these habits build up and get to the point where it is even harder to break them.

Therefore, it is a great time right now to do a quick audit of yourself and your habits that you have.

Once you have completed this audit, aim to choose two things to improve on, whether that is going for a 30 minute walk per day and then making sure you have dinner prepared 5 out of seven days per week.

Hope this helps you improve decision making process and therefore your habits over time.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Note: If you are in a point in your life where everything is too crazy, where it feels like everyone wants a piece of you, that would be the worst time to start too many new things. I can guarantee that you will need extra energy and brain capacity to make better decisions, therefore, try to start training with a coach. By doing this, it is the easiest way to start a new thing and you are held accountable. Once you have built training up as a habit, then focus on the next thing, which should be sleep and then your eating should be next.

How To Be Wealthy and Change Your Life Right Now!

We all wish we could wake up one morning and all our problems would be gone, (I don’t, how boring would life be then…) however unless winning the lotto, a 1 in 8 billion chance, there is nothing that can significantly change fortunes over night.

Therefore, rather leaving life to chance, I have drawn on learnings from some of the wealthiest people in the world, from Jim Rohn, Anthony Robbins, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos, to share with you how you can take action on changing your wealth right now!

The only difference between the women and men who are significantly better off than you right now is simply their mindset and how they look at the world differently.

Let me tell you a quick story on how someone was able to change their fortunes over a year and going from being in $11,400 in debt to paying down that debt and owning a house within the next four years.

The catalyst for that person came down to two things, one of which was the shame of seeing -$0.07 in their bank account and two, being unable to help a friend start a venture and supporting that friend.

So what changed? What changed from that person spending $12,000 per year on eating out, partying and getting themselves into $11,400 into debt, to owning their own home and successfully taking a step on the path to greater wealth?

Simply, it was a mindset shift, a shift from being the victim to being a person who took responsibility for their lives, their income and spending.

(If you have not guessed it, that person from above was myself, I got into a few car accidents that accrued nearly $5,400 in debt from the insurance companies and then also borrowed $6,000 from a family member to start a business.)

The difference between the wealthy and the poor is simply their mindset, yes other factors do come into play, such as where you grew up and the family environment. However, if you are stuck in a scarcity mindset, you will never be able to move into a mindset that can handle one of abundance.

Therefore, here are the top 3 mindset shifts and belief systems that you need to work on, to start changing your life, improve your wealth and your lifestyle;

Pay Yourself First!

That seems like a pretty simple one, but you would be astonished at how many people tend to pay the big fashion companies, or shoes stores, or car companies first…

As soon as you get paid, you should be paying yourself first, meaning taking a percentage of your wage and transferring it into a savings account or investing it for the future.

You just need to do a little bit of math, work out how much you roughly need to pay out in debts, food, bills, etc. And what you have leftover, pay into a savings account that you cannot touch. Becoming wealthy is just a mindset shift from being a consumer, to being a creator, a creator of your own wealth through self-discipline and giving back to your community.

Take Back Your Time!

Every day, you should be prioritising your time towards tasks and activities that will take you closer to your goals and ambitions. Not only that, but also delegating tasks and activities that is below your hourly rate. The rich get richer because they delegate roles and responsibilities that need to be done, to free up their time for the tasks and activities that are more important.

For example, you could be working full-time, however, you do not earn enough from your full-time job and therefore want to start a side-hustle or sole trader business. But, you have a family, two kids, a partner that also works full-time and house chores that need to be done.

If you could earn $100 per hour from your side-hustle, why would you not just pay a cleaner $35 per hour to clean your house?

You are still up $65 per hour!!

Therefore, take back your time, by delegating roles and responsibilities, if you are worth $300 per hour, don’t waste your time on tasks that you hate doing that are worth much less!

Finally, the most important mindset shift: You MUST Become Obsessed with Improving Your Income Streams

The really wealthy do not become wealthy just by doing one job well, they diversify the risks of losing said job or failing said business by putting earning their money from different streams.

Starting with your job or business!!

First, if you need to earn more money, look to asking for a pay rise or if in business, look to set some targets to grow the business more efficiently. Once you have developed this income stream, to the point where it has no more growth apart from inflation, you should look elsewhere for a second income stream.

The key is knowing when to do this, if you have a business, it may take a bit longer to grow your income, or it could grow really quickly, depending on the type of business, consumer sentiment and many other factors. If you have a job, it is as simple as asking for that pay rise and either getting it or not.

Once you develop a second, third, fourth and maybe even fifth income stream, you go back to the first mindset shift of paying yourself first.

Hopefully that has given you a few things to think about, as it sure changed my life and helped me to Take Back Control!

So until next time,

Take Back Control

Without Health, what is the point in Wealth?

As a personal trainer of 10 years and also a business owner within the health and fitness industry, I know a thing or two about health. I also know that without health, there is no point to having an exorbitant amount of wealth!

Therefore, today’s blog is dedicated to improving one’s life through your health and fitness, which after 10 years in the industry, you could say it is my bread and butter.

Firstly, I have seen a numerous amount of people who have neglected their health over the years, they got busy with work, had kids, and they forgot about themselves and did everything for others.

Which is great, however, also has led to a series of issues they do not even see as issues, such as;

+Becoming overweight, which leads to more health problems down the track (Nothing against being overweight, unless it is detrimental to your health)

+Hormonal changes and therefore heightened emotional fluctuations.

+Increased inflammation due to a neglected diet, which again causes more problems down the track as you get older

+Sleeplessness or insomnia, which again leads to more health issues as the problem persists

+Mobility issues, which leads to dysfunctional movement and muscle contraction, again leading to more problems down the track.

When I say they do not see the above as issues, we have grown to accept that putting on a few kilograms is okay, especially through COVID-19 and being locked down so consistently here in Victoria.

However, it is not the actual increase in bodyweight or few extra kilograms that is the problem, it is the increase in unhealthy habits that have been formed thanks to lock downs that is the main issue!

1. The increase in use of technology, for kids, as well as adults, which incorporates more sitting down and sedentary behaviour.

2. The increase of “convenience” foods, as we lost motivation and became flat due to a decrease in energy, which led to not wanting to cook wholesome meals at home.

3. The ability to actually go to a gym was lost to us through lock downs and as COVID cases persisted, people did not want to go out as much.

4. The ease of which we became entangled in unhealthy habits, which will only lead to more unhealthy habits.

The habit cycle can be a vicious one, whereby you get stuck in it without even knowing, hence the term getting “stuck in a rut.”

I want you to know though, that lockdowns were not your fault, that COVID-19 was not your fault, and that you were set up to fail with the ease of which you could simply click on an app and order any take-out you wished upon, at the time.

What you need to do now is become aware of it, become aware of all the unhealthy habits that you have picked up over the last two to three years.

And once you become aware, you simply need to make a choice…

Do you want to continue along these unhealthy habits and end up like a lot of older people my wife sees most days who are struggling to perform simple every day-to-day tasks?

My wife is an occupational therapist you see, who works with a lot of older people who need help with coming up with strategies to perform simple every day-to-day tasks. And also making their life easier as they move on to the next great beyond in palliative care.

I hear all her stories of all these older people losing the ability to just go to the toilet by themselves, and yes, some of these unfortunate people just have bad genetics and bad luck.

However, a lot of these older people could have potentially avoided all of their health problems by simply leading a slightly healthier life.

Or…

Do you want to choose to be a bit better, just slightly healthier, and potentially lead your kids to a healthier lifestyle as well?

Avoiding all that pain and suffering for yourself and your family as you get older!!

Because I can guarantee you, if you are feeling horrible a lot of the time, if you have no energy, if you feel bloated and gassy, if you feel that you are angry with the world or if you are struggling mentally with anxiety or depression…

You are most likely struggling in one or more of these four core areas of health;

1. Physical Activity

2. Nutrition

3. Stress

4. Sleep

I have some key performance metrics that I give my clients on these four core areas in every introduction session I have, and I have never had anyone rate themselves perfectly in any of these core areas.

Which is fine, because shit happens in life, things happen and we get stressed, we lose sleep, we prioritise things differently.

However, you should always fall back to these four core areas and simply work towards these performance metrics…

Physical Activity

• Work towards getting 7,500 to 10,000 steps everyday

• Train 2-3 times per week or get your heart rate up at the very least for 10-15 minutes, 2-3 x per week.

Nutrition

• Eat healthy, wholesome foods 80% of the time, the other 20% you can have a few treats

• Eat more Protein, whether that means eating more meats, fish, nuts, legumes, poultry etc.

• Eat a heap of vegies EVERYDAY!!

Sleep

• Sleep 7-9 hours EVERY Night

• If unable to, get a 20 minute power nap in the middle of the day

Stress

• Don’t take everything personally, everyone has stuff going on, therefore you need to take every situation with a grain of salt.

• Take in 5 DEEP breaths when you feel overwhelmed

• Most things that happen today, won’t matter in 10 years, so why stress about it?

And Finally, Be GRATEFUL for what you have, this goes a hell of a long way. I myself will take a step back in a stressful situation or if I am feeling overwhelmed, and think, “I have my health, my family are healthy and we have clean water and food to eat, therefore I have everything to be grateful for!”

If you can work towards improving these four core pillars of health and do these easy things everyday, you will be right on track to living a much healthier lifestyle.

It just takes a choice and a decision to do it, that is all.

Will you choose to be healthier for yourself? If not for yourself, for your kids, your partner or even your dog/cat?

I leave you with that to think about and I hope you do choose to be just that little bit healthier today!

Until next time,

Take Back Control